The Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Federal Government has vowed to disengage individuals holding fake certificates across public and private organizations.
Recall that a top official of Chicago State University, Mr. Carl Westberg, speaking under oath in a US court prior to the 2023 general election, said that a replacement copy of the Diploma certificate Tinubu submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was not from the Institution
The minister of education, Tahir Mamman, declared this commitment during a speech in Abuja on Friday while accepting the findings of an inter-ministerial investigative committee on degree certificate fraud, presented by the committee’s chair, Prof. Jubrila Amin.
Earlier this year, on January 9, the minister established this committee to investigate reports of degree fraud within domestic and foreign private universities.
The committee was tasked with assessing the involvement of government agencies or their personnel in facilitating the issuance and recognition of counterfeit certificates.
Expressing dismay at the revelations uncovered during the investigations, Mr. Mamman affirmed that the ministry would collaborate with relevant authorities to cleanse the education sector of fraudulent activities and ensure its integrity.
“We can’t afford to have the integrity of our education soar by some few persons.
“It is possible that some are carrying fake certificates in public and private organisations which need to be flushed out. This report is a product of a thorough investigation.
“It is sad that someone who should come out from a Nigerian institution with a 2:1 or 2:2 is now parading an international certificate of first class.
“The ministry is determined to take steps to sanitise the system,” he said.
He committed to playing a decisive role in upholding educational standards, emphasizing that the country cannot afford to compromise on quality.
Presenting the report, Mr. Amin, the chairman of the inter-ministerial committee, expressed deep concern over the substandard quality of education provided by certain institutions, describing many of them as highly inadequate.
Mr. Amin stressed the urgent need for comprehensive intervention, advocating for the digitization and automation of all education-related processes across agencies within the sector. He highlighted the benefits of automating the education system, enabling centralized monitoring of activities in tertiary institutions from any location.
During our investigation, we identified significant shortcomings in the current accreditation and results evaluation processes, he added.
Mr. Amin called for the establishment of more universities in the country, particularly those focusing on training PhD holders, to reduce the need for Nigerians to seek certifications abroad and potentially obtain counterfeit credentials.
He urged the National Universities Commission (NUC) to prioritize oversight of institutions offering part-time or sandwich programs to prevent a recurrence of issues like the 2017 controversy involving unaccredited course offerings.
“People go and get fake degrees and we have been to those countries and we know what a proper degree looks like, we know what the fake one looks like.
“We have given it to the ministry to scrutinise anyone presenting a certificate from those institutions and anything else is fake.
”It is up to the ministry to find out people with fake certificates and deal with them in whatever way they derm fit,” he said
Source: (NAN)
